Kim Han-min’s Hansan: Rising Dragons is a prequel to the 2014 film The Admiral: Roaring Currents, which focuses on the historic Battle of Hansan Island. This is the second film in a trilogy that follows the battles of Yi Sun-sin.  

In 1592, Admiral Yi Sun-sin (Park Hae-il, The Host, Moss) and his Joseon fleet go to battle against the invading Japanese navy and its powerful warships. When the Korean forces start to stumble, the admiral resorts to using his secret weapon, the turtle ship, to turn the tide during the battle.

I really wasn’t into Hansan: Rising Dragons as I had hoped but war films of any kind don’t really interest me. Outside of a few action sequences, for me the film was on the dull side with too much dialogue. Even if the film had more action, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it that much more. The runtime is over two hours and it dragged. The film was made with the intent to be an epic but to me it fell way short. On the positive side I thought that the cinematography by Kim Tae-seong was outstanding, capturing a lot of great shots of the scenery and the battleships out at sea. The costumes were cool with some great designs and the acting by the cast, which includes Byun Yo-han as Wakisaka, Son Hyun-joo as Won Gyun, and Kim Sung-kyun as Kato was excellent.

Also, the music, also by Kim Tae-seong is well-done with a rousing soundtrack that was intended to make the film feel epic, but again, I didn’t think it was.

Hansan: Rising Dragon gets a Blu-ray release from Well Go USA. The image looks dynamite with a superior HD image. It might look even better on a UHD release, but this Blu-ray looks marvelous with gorgeous scenes under broad daylight, and clear beautiful scenes of the ocean. This to me stole the show in the image department. Outside of the scenery, the black levels looked balanced, the flesh tones were accurate with a vast amount of detail to the actors faces.

For their Blu-ray, Well Go USA has provided both Korean DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 audio tracks, along with English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks for this release. After toggling them back and forth there was no major differences in the audio as the dialogue was crisp and clear, with the music coming in the most aggressive by far. Action sounds are nicely blended in with the dialogue and everything sounded perfectly clear. English subtitles are offered for the release.

The Hansan: Rising Dragons Blu-ray has some supplements as well.

Character highlights which takes a closer look at some of the key characters in the movie

Staff commentary, which is not a commentary track, but it is interviews with Costume Designer Gwon Yu-jin, VFX artists Jeong Cheol-min and Jeong Seong-jin, Director Kim Han-min, Music Director Kim Tae-seong and Production Designer Jo Hua-seong who discuss the making of the film.

Secrets of makeup with Cho Tae-Hee, where discusses the make-up for the actors. A trailer and some previews for other Well Go USA releases round out the extras.

While I personally didn’t really enjoy Hansan: Rising Dragons, do not let me opinion of the film deter you into seeing it. I think fans of this genre and type of film will thoroughly enjoy it. The Well Go USA Blu-ray with stupendous audio and video quality to go with some extras make this a recommended package!

Hansan: Rising Dragon

Director- Kim Han-Min

Cast- Park Hae-il, Yo-Han Byun

Country of Origin- South Korea

Distributor – Well Go USA

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date –11/7/2022